Canada is closer to finalizing the establishment of Akami-Uapishkᵁ-KakKasuak-Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve in Labrador and will permit and regulate traditional land use activities in it. It also moved closer to finalizing the establishment of Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area in Nunavut, upon completion of its interim management plan.
Mealy Mountains protects a nationally significant example of the East Coast Boreal Natural Region. The landscapes hold great cultural significance for the Indigenous people of Labrador, and one of the defining features of this park is the sharing of management, stewardship and planning responsibilities with Indigenous partners.
Tallurutiup Imanga is the "ecological engine" for much of the Eastern Canadian Arctic marine ecosystem. It's one of the most significant ecological areas in the world and is considered the heart of High Arctic Inuit existence. At approximately 108,000 square kilometre, Tallurutiup Imanga represents nearly 1.9 per cent of Canada's marine protected area coverage.
The federal government will also formally update the boundaries of seven national parks and one national park reserve to include lands added to parks over the past decades.
The government recently tabled legislation to finalized these processes, but nothing becomes final until the bill goes through the parliamentary process and receives royal assent.
While these lands are already managed or under the administration of Parks Canada, this legislation will ensure that they are added to the Canada National Parks Act and the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act and can receive the full protections of the Acts and their associated regulations.
This will represent an increase of 12,085,851 hectares protected under these Acts, a land mass almost the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined.
The legislation also includes six amendments that will align the Canada National Parks Act and the Rouge National Urban Park Act with the modern legislative environment, and strengthen the tools used to operate and manage Parks Canada's network of protected areas.
"We are securing stronger protections for some of Canada's most iconic landscapes,” Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, said in a news release. “With an increase in the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, ensuring that these lands can benefit from the highest level of protection is more important than ever.”
Establishing Tallurutiup Imanga is a key element “in the preservation of Canada's natural environment, and the wildlife that Inuit depend on for cultural continuity, ensuring that Inuit rights are respected, and traditional activities continue to be carried out,” said Qikiqtani Inuit Association president Olayuk Akesuk.
The Canada National Parks Act, Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act and the Rouge National Urban Park Act are Canadian federal laws that regulate the creation and protection of national parks and national marine conservation areas. For a park or marine conservation area to be fully protected under legislation that is enforceable under the Canadian legal system, it must be passed under these Acts.